Chelsea FC Women are back in Barclays FA Women’s Super League on Sunday as we take on Birmingham City and here we preview the match!

When and where?

Emma Hayes’ Chelsea make a journey to the Midlands to face Birmingham City on Sunday. The league fixture takes place at the SportNation.bet Stadium and kicks off at 2.30pm.

How to follow

You can keep up to date with the match via our social media channels. There will be live commentary on our Twitter page, regular updates on Facebook and Instagram, plus footage of the matchday on our Instagram story. Simply search ‘ChelseaFCW' on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

The match will also be shown live on BT Sport from 2.15pm.

The form

Chelsea will look to return to winnings ways after suffering a narrow 2-1 defeat to Everton last weekend in the quarter-final of the FA Cup. The Blues took the lead at Goodison Park inside five minutes courtesy of a powerful strike from Erin Cuthbert but then close to half-time the Toffees levelled the scoring when Lucy Graham headed home a cross. Although Chelsea had numerous chances to restore our lead, the Blues could not find the back of the net and Everton punished us again on the counter attack when Valerie Gauvin directed a header beyond Ann-Katrin Berger at the near post.

In our last league outing, Chelsea made history by recording a whopping 9-0 victory against Bristol City, with nine different players getting there name on the scoresheet. The Blues managed 21 shots on target for this match, which is the second highest in a Women’s Super League match, second to our 6-0 Spring Series win versus Yeovil Town that had 22.

Birmingham were last in action on Wednesday evening having reached the semi-final of the FA Cup. They hosted Everton but it was the Toffees who have advanced to the final of the competition after triumphing 3-0.

Our opponent have started off their WSL with two losses which were against Brighton & Hove Albion and Manchester United. Their first outing ended in a 2-0 defeat away to the Seagulls and the following week versus United finished 5-2. It was Claudia Walker who was Birmingham’s scorer and their second goal was an own-goal by United’s Abbie McManus.

Chelsea v Birmingham City recent head-to-head record

Chelsea and Birmingham last played each other in February and the Blues came away with three points courtesy of two goals either side of half-time from Guro Reiten and Bethany England.

We beat Birmingham 6-0 in the away fixture last term. Ji So-Yun and Millie Bright both scored a goal apiece, while both England and Drew Spence bagged a brace.

The outing before this was in January 2019 and the match resulted in a narrow 3-2 loss, the Blues’ last league defeat.

The away league fixture last term was frustrating as a dominant performance from Hayes’ side was not rewarded with three points – thanks largely to Ann-Katrin Berger, who used to play for our opponents. The highlight of the German's afternoon was a magnificent save to deny Blues legend Karen Carney from the penalty spot as the match finished goalless.

Next at Kingsmeadow

There will be two big matches taking place at Kingsmeadow in a space of just a few days. First up the Blues host Arsenal for our opening Continental Tyres League Cup group match on Wednesday 7 October and then we welcome Manchester City in the WSL on the Sunday.

Unfortunately both games will be played behind closed doors as we continue to follow the government guidelines around Covid-19.